Little People, Big Style.

If this isn't the most stylish, fun family you have seen in awhile, then...well, just take a look.

I normally don't post so many photos, but they are just so ridiculously cute! So much love in these seven Tisdales!

Beauty from Ashes

I'm always humbled when we visit our friends in Cincinnati. They all live quite intentionally in neighborhoods ridden with crime and drugs, believing meanwhile God has called them to redeem the brokenness that surrounds them. Every time I visit these dear friends, I do so with excitement over all that God is doing and a sort of heaviness at all of the sadness they are faced with daily as it pertains to watching six year-olds look after their one year-old sisters and brothers at the park, walking by drug deals, receiving cat-calls and pleas for money from drunk men, and the list goes on.

And yet, there is so much beauty. Old buildings being rehabbed. Colorful murals on old brick walls. People with homemade wine and gingerbread, offering up their songs on the banjo, sung by children, to neighbors in order to celebrate Jesus' birth. Old diners that still play "I Love Lucy" all day long. Diversity. Passion. And yes, that list goes on too.

Seven

I always wanted a girl and on December 28th, God gave me the most perfect one. She is the sunshine of our family and I am so thankful for all that I learn (when I alas stop to listen) through the awe-struck eyes of my Keziah Psalter.

We did her birthday American Girl style this year. She loved the carriage ride and her favorite food: naked vegetarian burrito from Qdoba. And a sleepover with her cousins to top it off!

Sunshine Boy

Alex Anthony was adopted by my sister and brother-in-law when he was around eighteen months-old. Our whole family went to meet Alex at the airport the night his daddy brought him home from China. Sucking intently on a pacifier, his chocolate eyes met our family of blue eyes with curiosity and fear. He spent the first few months learning to trust these new adults in his life, some of the most loving parents I know. And he alas began to call them Daddy and Mommy.

It wasn't until coming home after being gone a year and a half in Italy that I noticed the incredible progress that had taken place in this little guy. He is almost four and is the happiest pre-schooler I've ever known. His smile lights up a room and overwhelms my heart. Perhaps I am overwhelmed because I remember that timid, fear-ridden toddler who would cry whenever his mommy left the room, out of angst that she might not return. As cliche' as it sounds, Alex's life reminds me of the difference one family can make in one child's life.

I cannot imagine our family without him. I love you Alex!!!

I can see a lot of light in you...

Pretty sure I could write a whole book about these two beauties. When my mom gave birth to Kaitlyn when I was ten, I was ecstatic. When Alison came along, I was beginning to be swallowed up by training bras and Truth or Dare and sort of lost the sentiment. But it returned in my high school years...and into college. And they were like a trial run of parenting. No baggage. Well, except that one time I dragged Ali across the carpet because she was throwing a fit.

They have turned out to be everything I ever thought and told them they were and would be: Smart, talented, beautiful, amazing, amazing, amazing. And now, the irony: I am finding myself much more often the learner, the lesser, the apprentice in a world of fresh perspective and big dreams, of fearless living and boundless confidence.

Kait and Ali: Iwuvyou.